Collapsing confidence and buckling financial markets sparked talk Monday that Congress may need to resume work soon on emergency measures to shore up the economy.

On the first weekday of recess, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 700 points in intra-day trading, economists and market experts questioned the benefit of the $700 billion rescue package enacted just last Friday.

Congress is due to return for a brief lame-duck session on Nov. 17, but market turmoil and economic gloom could change the agenda of that brief post-election workweek, some say.

The House was adjourned “subject to a call from the chair” and so could technically be reconvened at short notice.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) spokesman, Nadeam Elshami, said: “We are closely monitoring [the crisis] and will act accordingly … We will review what further action needs to be taken by Congress as the economic rescue plan is implemented.”

Stacey Bernards, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), said: “Leader Hoyer plans on staying in close touch with both the bipartisan congressional leadership, as well as the White House, to ensure that we respond appropriately to economic events.”

Bernards deflected to Pelosi’s office all questions about further action by Congress this year.

European finance ministers met Monday to discuss how to handle a financial panic that has spread across the Atlantic and forced the German and Belgian governments to intervene to save two major banks: Hypo Real Estate Holding, a German mortgage lender, and Fortis, a Belgian insurance and banking giant. The London and Frankfurt stock markets lost 7 percent, and Paris 9 percent.

The spreading crisis, congressional recess and dwindling effectiveness of President Bush in the final weeks of his presidency will focus attention on Washington again this weekend when the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) hold their annual meetings.

As the financial storm gathered, House lawmakers traded partisan accusations at an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Monday over the reasons for the financial meltdown. Democrats blamed Wall Street greed and Republicans pointed to lax lending by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Dow closed down nearly 370 points, and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell almost 4 percent.

Some economists suggested Democratic leaders might have to call the Senate and House back into session for emergency action to prevent a severe recession. Market confidence and the credit crunch have worsened sharply in the two weeks since Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson handed Congress his three-page outline for a bailout.

“Now people are getting much more concerned about the financial markets feeding back adversely on the regular economy,” said Morris Goldstein, a former senior official at the IMF and a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “In the last week or two that’s gotten a lot worse. We’re really not seeing the credit availability now. That’s making people more pessimistic.”

Goldstein said the $700 billion bailout has failed to revive market confidence. Anxiety has worsened as investors realize that toxic mortgage-based assets threaten banks in Europe as well as those in the United States.

Goldstein said that Congress might have to return to Washington in the next several weeks to pass an emergency economic stimulus package, increase the federal insurance limit on bank deposits or enlarge the financial authority of Paulson to buy distressed assets.